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Marineland’s tumultuous final days

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014, marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of Marineland of the Pacific. In this third installment on the park, we’ll take a look at its closure in 1987, a wrenching demise that resulted in sadness, bitterness and a good deal of community outrage.

After its heady days of regularly breaking the 1 million mark in annual attendance in the 1960s, attendance began to drop off later in the decade.

With a couple of exceptions, one being the Ocean Plaza exhibit and the other, the 320-foot Marineland Sky Tower, little had been done to update the park by its original owners. Also, Marineland faced more competition not only from the growing popularity of theme park rivals such as Disneyland, but also, in 1964, from the opening of Sea World in San Diego.

The park’s original owners began talks with the Hollywood Turf Club, owners of the Hollywood Park racetrack, in 1970. The park’s financial woes deepened in 1971, and in November of that year, Marineland was sold to the Hollywood Turf Club.

The new owners leased the operation of the park to Twentieth Century Fox, who ran Marineland until 1977. After a dispute in 1977, operation reverted back to the Hollywood Turf Club.

In October 1977, Marineland was sold again, this time to the Kroger Company and Taft Broadcasting for $5 million. Taft also owned the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, and decided to remake the park using the studio’s familiar characters Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, Huckleberry Hound and others.

The park was closed on October 31, 1977, for remodeling, and many employees were laid off. It reopened on May 27, 1978 as Hanna Barbera’s Marineland. In addition to the various cartoon-themed renovations, the refurbishments included the Marine Animal Care Center, whose mission was to treat wounded marine animals. The park had been doing just that since its inception, but the Center established a special facility for sea animal care.

Taft did invest a considerable sum in Marineland, adding participatory attractions such as the Family Adventure Swim, followed by Baja Reef, where swimmers could swim and snorkel through a custom-built aquarium. Attendance began rising back towards the 1 million mark, after dipping as low as 700,000 during its lean years.

In 1981, Taft sold Marineland to Far East Hotels and Entertainment Ltd., a Hong Kong company that ran hotels and amusement parks. The company, a division of Warwick International, promised to invest in refurbishing the aging park, but did little more than give it superficial touch ups, such as a fresh coat of paint

But the true corporate villain of this piece didn’t emerge until 1986, when book publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ) entered the Marineland story. HBJ owned the Sea World theme parks, including the one in San Diego, and had attempted earlier to purchase Marineland’s killer whales Orky and Corky without success.

On Tuesday, Dec. 30, 1986, HBJ purchased Marineland from Warwick for $23.4 million. After the acquisition, it announced that Marineland would continue to be run as normal, with the purchase having little impact on its day-to-day operations.

In reality, the company had made up its mind on a course of action early on, after determining that revamping the park would cost millions more than it was willing to spend.

HBJ sent the first shockwaves of outrage through the community when it loaded the park’s star attractions, Orky and Corky the killer whales, onto moving trucks in the late evening of Tuesday, Jan. 20, 1987. The whales were shipped secretly under cover of darkness to Sea World in San Diego, where they arrived at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.

That move infuriated the park’s fans and the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council, which had been attempting to work with HBJ on Marineland’s problems. Both felt betrayed by the company’s deceptions.

Marineland employees pose in front of the park for a group photo on Feb. 3, 1987. The park would be closed permanently eight days later. Daily Breeze staff photo by Jack Lardomita.

The other shoe dropped a week later on Wednesday, Jan. 28, when Marineland’s management was informed in the late afternoon that HBJ would be closing the park on March 1, 1987.

Rust and corrosion in this fish tank at Marineland six months after the park closed. Aug. 11, 1987 Daily Breeze file photo.

An unidentified employee told Daily Breeze reporter Diana Chapman, “I sort of knew it would happen. Everyone was really tense. The curators and marine department people were crying.”

HBJ’s only comment was a press release stating that “two killer whales at Marineland were in danger,” and the park’s marine biologists thought the animals should be removed, statements disputed by some park employees.

Employees saddened by the closure soldiered on toward the deadline, only to have HBJ drop yet another shoe on Wednesday, Feb. 11: The park would close for good the next day.

HBJ blamed bomb threats for the early closure, but the community was not convinced.

Protesters decry the closing of Marineland outside the gates of the park on Feb. 12, 1987. Daily Breeze file photo.

Dozens of protesters showed up outside the park on Feb. 12, 1987 to voice their disapproval over the park’s closure, and, more realistically, HBJ’s handling of the situation.
Said park employee Kandi Lancaster, pithily, “It’s the American way, but it sure stinks.”

Shortly after the park’s closure, HBJ, stung by criticism and bad publicity, announced plans to unload the property.

On March 5, 1987, the iconic pilot whale and dolphin statues began to be removed from Marineland’s entrance sign.

The statue based on Bubbles the pilot whale at the entrance to Marineland is removed in this March 6, 1987 Daily Breeze file photo.

HBJ announced that it had sold the Marineland property to Arizona developer James G. Monaghan on May 14,1987 for $24.5 million.

Monaghan immediately made it clear that Marineland would never reopen. His plans for the property consisted of a large resort hotel and conference center that would incorporate some of Marineland’s features, including Baja Reef.

One of the main tanks at Marineland under demolition in this Feb. 16, 1988 Daily Breeze file photo by staff photographer Jack Lardomita.

Demolition of the main structures that housed the sharks, whales and aquarium exhibit began on Thursday, Feb. 11, 1988, and was mostly completed by Feb. 16.

One of the casualties of the Marineland demolition in February 1988 was the destruction of this whale mural by mural artist Wyland, who painted a sea life mural on the AES power plant in Redondo Beach that has become a local landmark. The Marineland mural, painted by Wyland in 1984, did not survive. Daily Breeze file photo by staff photographer Jack Lardomita.

A year later, on June 20, 1989, HBJ announced the sale of its theme parks, including all four Sea Worlds. Anheuser-Busch purchased the HBJ properties for $1.1 billion on Sept. 28, 1989. (Blackstone Group. Sea World’s current owner, bought the parks for $2.7 billion in October 2009.)

For the next two decades, remnants of Marineland remained. The Sky Tower stood guard over abandoned buildings until its dismantling in late June 1995. It had been damaged by vandals, and deemed to be a hazard for low-flying aircraft in the area.

In June 2003, Rancho Palos Verdes approved a planned $200 million resort for the Long Point land where Marineland once stood, six years after the plan first was proposed.

In preparation, demolition began in July 2008 on the twenty or so remaining Marineland buildings, including its original motel and restaurant buildings, and the Catalina Room, whose stunning location was the site for hundreds of weddings and receptions long after the park itself had closed for good.

Finally, the sad last days of Marineland came to an end when the Terranea resort officially opened on the site on Friday, June 12, 2009. The $480 million project, which had been in the works since 1997, took years to come to fruition, but, despite the delays, Rancho Palos Verdes residents ultimately seemed pleased with the end result.

Here’s one other positive outcome of the Marineland closure: When Monaghan bought the Marineland property from HBJ in 1987, one of his terms was that HBJ contribute to the building of a separate animal care center like the one that had been operating at the park.

He rejected the company’s original offer of $500,000, instead getting them to agree to $3 million for the establishment of the Marine Mammal Care Center, which continues to save and rehabilitate sea animals to this day from its location at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro.

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

A Photographic Journey Back to Marineland of the Pacific, by Jim Patryla, self-published, 2005.

The Marineland site on the Palos Verdes Peninsula on Aug. 1, 2000. A few buildings and the parking lots remain from the theme park. Daily Breeze staff file photo.

Aerial photo of the newly opened Terranea resort on the former Marineland site on Long Point. Sept. 17, 2009. Photo by Daily Breeze staff photographer Robert Casillas.

awesome history for those of us born after marineland was closed. thanks!

Ann Christensen-Moore

Such memories. As a teacher for 30 years I never would buy or endorse an HBJ textbook after what they did. Just my little piece of disapproval.

Diane Beck

You have a tasteful and educated reaction to a frustrating situation, bravo.

Ann Christensen-Moore

thank you

TV BOSS

Tourists
used to get lost going to Marineland due to the land slide at Portuguese Bend,
and Crenshaw not being cut though. Their printed map showed a path back
down to the coast but they would end up where Crenshaw dead ended near the LA 55
Nike Radar base.

As
kids my brother and I would sell them a small hand drawn map for a quarter!
Sometimes they would even just hand you a dollar!

Back
in the mid- 60s if you could make $5 as a kid on a good day that was good
money! I remember I bought my first used Dumont 3 inch
Oscilloscope for my electronics lab for only $5 and the guys at the radar
base helped me fix it up! so…. $5 went along way…

To,
to put things in further perspective, a Thrifty Drug Store ice cream cone was
only a nickel for one scoop, or ten cents for a double! —-Ed#

Went on a field trip to Marineland with my first grade class in 1964. That was Don Smith Elemantary School, which is also no longer in existence. That Smith site on the corner of Isis ave and 137th Street became a housing development, and the retirement nest egg of Hawthorne’s most successful (greedy) real estate agent. Leaving names out, let’s just say some GUY who was in politics. (Surprised?)